Promising creamy foamy head that soon dissipitates. Amber colour. Neutral slightly malty aroma, with just a hint of hops. Taste is malty and a bit of hoppy,Centennial and East Golding, but not all that tasty.Light mouthfeel,even watery.
Poor for its style.

Pours a slightly murky copper with a tan head that settles to a film on top of the beer. Foamy swaths of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of malt, caramel, and citrus zest aromas. Taste is much the same but slightly watery. There is a very mild bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a good level of carbonation with a crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty average beer with a better smell than taste in my opinion.

a better than normal amber ale, but its a pretty basic beer, one we have all tasted before. copper colored but much more rich in grain flavor. its got caramel and toffee and molasses and sticky bread all there, and its a little sweeter than i like, especially for sessioning it, but i think its well made and i like the layers. not much hops, it could stand a touch of bittering backbone. forthy feeling and palate coating, carbonated well enough and somewhat decadent overall. feels like dessert to me, lots of body and that left over sugar, almost maple syrupy as it goes down. a beer to enjoy one of, let it warm, and appreciate its bigness. thats not what i usually get in an amber, but i really did enjoy sipping it like a barleywine. the sugar content required it.

Not into the whole organic movement but I do love trying new beers to this fits the bill. Pours a reddish-brown color, small head to it.. moderate amount of lacing. Faint nutty aroma to it.. almost non existent. Medium bodied, smooth mouthfeel.. not much taste to this one. Slight hops, a decent malt backbone.. but lot of blandness. Not a bad beer by any means, but definitely not exciting or tasty in the least bit.. I'd drink one if handed to me, but I would not seek out and buy this one again. Meh.

Taste: Grainy, simple pale maltiness with just a mere hint of caramel sweetness. Indistinct touch of fruit. Not really much in the way of hop flavor or bitterness beyond and a faint touch of herbal, tea-like bitterness that holds you over until the abrupt, weak finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium carbonation.

Drinkability: A remarkably dull and altogether bland brew. If getting the organic "gold star" means a pint full of yawns, then bring on the pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers!

Charred orange with an infusion of liquid bronze. The upper third of the glass is occupied by a tight-bubbled head that is somewhere between pale orange and toasted tan in color. If the first half inch of deflation is any indication, the glass will be nicely coated with a thin blanket of lace. Amber Ale looks more like an Oktoberfest than an amber ale.

For a beer than supposedly contains a 'liberal dose' of Centennial hops, as well as East Kent Goldings, the nose is a major letdown. The aroma is well-toasted caramel malty, earthy and somewhat diacetyl-like. I hate to say it, but I've smelled plenty of organic beer that had some of those same characteristics. Why that should be so, I have no earthly idea. Do they all get their grain from the same supplier?

While the flavor is a little better, it isn't enough to warrant the next highest score. The beer is dominated by an earthy toasted maltiness that has to be due to some amount of Munich malt. In other words, not only does COAA looks like an Oktoberfest, it smells and tastes like one too.

An underlying malty sweetness is effectively balanced by a bitterness that noses ahead on the finish. I still can't appreciate the grapefruity citrusiness that the Centennial hops should have provided. I don't mind diacetyl in some instances, but I'm having trouble feeling good about it here because there's very little else to get excited about.

The mouthfeel is actually pretty decent. A sufficient amount of malt provides a clean, almost lager-like smoothness and there's nothing at all wrong with the middle-of-the-road amount of carbonation. Other than the appearance, the mouthfeel is the highlight.

Interesting fact: Eel River Brewing Co. was the first Certified Organic brewery in the United States and released the first Certified Organic beer, this one, in 1999. I can appreciate the history, I just wish the beer was more enjoyable.

Pours hazed amber with a thin off-white head that lasts, leaving some thin lacing.

The smell is of lightly roasted caramel with a touch of honey. Very mild.

The taste is of caramel. Tinny/slightly metallic notes mix in, though, fitting in with overall character of this brew, they're mild. Mildly sweet, with a touch of tea-like bitterness to give it some balance. A "flat"/blandish aftertaste lingers for a bit.

The body is on the thin side of medium with a bit more than adequate carbonation.

It just has a blandness about it that, unless you are really an organic devotee and can't get anything better, it's hardly even worth checking out. A mediocre brew at best. As for me, I'm glad I only bought a single of it. Wouldn't get it again.

After a day of drinking at "The Bank" in Wheaton, I come home to find a beautiful Amber in my fridge....in the form of Eel River Amber. The beer pours a very nice cleart amber with virtually no head and no lacing. The smell includes a malt with slight molassis balance. The taste follows the smell and there is a very nice sweet malt base. the Mouthfeel is a medium to light boddy with average carbonation. Overall the beer is taste, but I would not go searching for it.

The beer pours a nice amber color with a thin white lace head that quickly fades; no retention. The aroma is average. It has a musty, stale pale and crystal malt scent. It's grainy and yeast driven from being bottle conditioned. The taste is decent. It has a grainy, sweet malt flavor that boasts of pale and crystal malts. It goes down smooth and finishes slightly bitter. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a medium bodied beer with adequate carbonation. This is a decent amber ale. It's nothing I would buy again, but it's the only beer by these guys I like.

Eel River Amber has really good clarity but not much luster; the beer's deep amber colour (with its almost brick-red tinge) is seriously lacking in the highlight department. Likewise, its head is good in size and subsisting, but incapable of leaving lace. In fact, it's a very no-frills beer all around...

I don't have any idea of prices on the wholesale organic agriculture trade; I imagine organic hops are quite a niche and therefore might be considerably more expensive than other commercial varieties. At very least this theory would explain how this amber came to be so dull; there is no aroma what so ever except a faint smell of crystal malt.

Ditto for taste. Bitterness is scarce - the malts aren't even that sweet (especially for an amber) but there's literally nothing to note apart from a generic, somewhat cereal-y graininess. Sure, the use of crystal malts has added a bit of flavour but the caramel notes are far from pronounced and there's not overtly toasty or nutty about it. It's boringly bare.

The beer has a couple of things going for it: it's clean (no fouling adjunct taste); it is well brewed, with no obvious faults; and it's not too uncommon to turn away the average beer drinker. As for that third thing, while it's good for sales, it doesn't make for a very impressionable beer; a little more character would make it a lot more enjoyable.

Organic beer may be better for the planet but in my experience it's not better for the palate. It's unfortunate that there exists a stigma of organic beers as being somehow inferior, but if they continue to be as ordinary and average as Eel River Amber (the first organic beer to be commercially advertised as such) consumers aren't likely to pay the extra money or switch their consumption patterns. At least I, personally, won't be.

A: Poured a clear, rusty-orange with a thin, micro-bubbly head that quickly dissipated leaving no lacing. Visible carbonation was light and steady.

S: The nose was spicy and sour tangerines with a light lemony hopping. The nose was rather gentle and light in nature.

T: The initial flavor was sweet-n-sour tangerines and a sour lemony hopping. Light sour oranges are experienced upfront but quickly fade to a thankfully clean finish. Overall the malt sweetness is lacking and the odd, sour lemony hopping distracts from the natural balance and nature of this beer.

D: Sour lemony hopping distracts from the overall style and affects the enjoyment as well drinkability. Not 6 pack worthy and no incentive to drink again. Save your dime on this one, unimpressed and a bad example per style.

Poured into 10oz glass. Poured a slightly reddish amber with just a thin cap of off-white head that had low retention and lace. The aroma was the typical malty sweet scent of the style, with a bit of hops at the finish. The flavors were mostly smooth malt with a slight tang of hops on the end. The body was a touch fuller than typical for the style. Drinkability was very good, if I were in the mood, I could drink several of these. Overall, a nice little beer, and easily the equal of (and probably better than) it's counterparts Fat Tire and Alaskan.

12oz bottle into a pint glass. Pours a hazy amber color with a nice off white head. The aroma is largely dominated by the malt that is both biscuity and nutty. The taste is nutty with some malt and a nice hop finish. This beer is pretty well balanced but I find something about the aroma and taste to be a little odd. Overall, not a bad Amber but there are far more offerings in this category that are quite superior.

Taste, roasted, grainy, minimal hop presence, wood feel, a little heavy on the back end. Not real adventurous, not bland, but just kinda meh. Too expensive to even be a desparation beer, might as well order a SA as its comparable in its non offensiveness.

The beer dispenses from the 12-ounce brown bottle a luminous brown with a substantial creamy light tan head that last and last, the residual lace a clinging sheet to obscure the glass. Nose is sweet malt, earthy and fresh, slight hint of hops, quite appealing, start is sweet with a pleasant grain profile, the top is moderate in its feel to the palate. Finish has a stern acidity and the hops delightfully spicy, quite dry aftertaste that last a long time, a fine drinking beer from a brewery that is new to me, well done Eel River!

A - The haze in the beer gives the amber color a muddy appearance. A moderate pour puts the light khaki head to a finger tall. Low retention ended up as a creamy ring and a few fingers of lace.

S - Sort of reminiscent of a dubbel for some reason. I get notes of dark fruit and dark candi sugar with a sweet caramel malt nose and light yeast and hops. Not very amber-ish.

T - What it lacks in amber qualities in the nose it slightly makes up for in the flavor. Lightly toasted notes of bread and caramel malts with a yeasty aftertaste and low hop flavor. Rather bland.

M - Fairly smooth and somewhat creamy with a low carbonation finish and a medium body, this is the beer's best quality.

D - Nothing seems to fall into place for this beer. Everything is certified organic though, and it's one of the "better" ones boasting that title. Also, the manner in which I found it was questionable so I gave it a bit of leniency. It could be old but it certainly doesn't taste "bad/off".

This beer pours a hazy amber color. The head is half an inch in height, and recedes within seconds into no lacing. The aroma is of sugary malt with a nasty chemically hop presence. This smells awful, and it is magnifies too much by the fact that, unlike most beers that smell bad, its aroma is actually pretty strong. The taste is like that aroma. It is full of malt that doesn't really taste malty, and hops that taste like chemicals instead of hops. Just awful. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, and flat. Overall, this is the first drain pour I've encountered in a very long time. Usually, I am able to find something of value in every beer I drink, but there is simply nothing in this beer that I like.